MoD pays out for Iraqi civilian deaths

The government has paid compensation believed to amount to thousands of pounds to three families of Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by British troops, it was disclosed yesterday.

A further 13 claims following the deaths of Iraqi civilians are being investigated, the Ministry of Defence said.

One of the payments has been made to the family of Baha Mousa, the son of a police colonel, who died allegedly after being assaulted with seven other young Iraqis by British soldiers in Basra last September.

A British army death certificate is reported to state that Mr Mousa died of "asphyxia".

One of the survivors of the alleged incident is reported to have suffered serious kidney failure.

The MoD yesterday declined to comment on a report that it had offered the Mousa family £4,500 in compensation.

However, it insisted that money given to Iraqi families was in the form of "ex gratia payments". That did not mean the MoD accepted liability for any of the deaths, it said. "We do not accept admission of guilt. That is the policy."

But a spokesman said that "several British soldiers" were assisting the special investigation branch of the military police who were undertaking criminal inquiries.

An investigation into Mr Mousa's death was continuing, he added.

The compensation claims were revealed in a written parliamentary answer to the Plaid Cymru MP, Adam Price.

The MoD said 23 Iraqi families had made compensation claims following the deaths of civilians.

Seven of the claims have been rejected while another 13 are under investigation. A further 73 claims have been made by Iraqi civilians claiming to have been injured by British forces since May 1 last year.

Mr Price will today call on the government to hold an independent inquiry into the fatalities during a Commons debate on "postwar civilian deaths and military operations in Iraq".

He said yesterday: "In the majority of these cases we do not know the circumstances or even the names of the victims as proper public scrutiny has not been possible either in Iraq or in the UK."

He added: "It is simply not acceptable for the military to be investigating themselves and deciding on an ad hoc basis whether or not to award ex gratia payments to the families of the deceased.

"We need an independent and fully impartial investigation into all of these allegations of civilian deaths involving coalition forces so that justice is done and seen to be done by the long suffering people of Iraq."

He said Carl Conetta, director of Washington-based thinktank Project on Defence Alternatives, estimated there had been 200 civilian Iraqi deaths as a result of action by occupying forces between May and November last year.